After we said good bye to our friends in Illinois we headed west. I've always wanted to see Mount Rushmore, and Bob had never been there either, so we decided to check it out. It was definitely worth the visit. It's amazing!
I almost forgot! We just can't head west without stopping to see The Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota. I think it's just fascinating. All the pictures and designs on The Corn Palace are made using different grains and corn. Andrew's Grandma Rosie lives in Mitchell!
Now, back to Mount Rushmore. You can see the Memorial from miles away, and it gets more and more beautiful the closer you get.
Don't you just think it's awesome? I can't imagine hanging down the side of the mountain using jack hammers to carve the rock.
I took many, many pictures, and I'm really glad I don't have to take my film to get it developed anymore. We'd be broke!
Our next stop was Custer State Park and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this beautiful curved, wooden bridge.
There are herds of buffalo at Custer State Park, and they just wander along grazing happily. They're huge, so everyone stops to let them pass. The people on the motorcycle in front of us looked rather concerned when these big guys walked past them!
Another interesting feature of Custer State Park is the tunnels carved through rock. The brochure they give you at the entrance station gives the width of each tunnel. Our truck is huge, and I was concerned, but Bob assured me that it would be ok, and we wouldn't get stuck.
This is the narrowest tunnel, The Needles Eye Tunnel and again Bob said it would be ok. I took a video while we were driving through, and my voice is rather shaky on that video. We agreed that we made it with an inch or two to spare. It was tight! I hated to think of getting stuck in a rock tunnel where I couldn't even open my door to get out!
After leaving Custer State Park we drove on to see The Crazy Horse Memorial, and it's HUGE! the work on the Memorial was started in 1948, and it's a work in progress. When finished, the Memorial will be 641' wide by 563' high. Mount Rushmore is big, but each President's head is only 60' tall. The statue in the foreground is a model of how the Memorial will look when it's finished. You can see the face and arm carved into the rock in the background.
This is a close up of what the Crazy Horse Memorial looks like today, with the construction cranes, etc. on the arm.
This was another fun stop on our trip. We're heading to Jackson, Wyoming for our hike in the Tetons, so stayed tuned for more updates.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment